1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lead wire fixing structure for fixing a lead wire led out from an electric motor in a blower device which is driven by the electric motor used for various equipment such as O.A. equipment, home electrical equipment, equipment mounted on a vehicle and the like.
2. Description of Related Art
A blower device is widely used for cooling or ventilating various equipment such as O.A. equipment, home electrical equipment, equipment mounted on a vehicle and the like. A general blower device includes an electric motor having an impeller, a housing which supports the motor therein and through which air induced by the impeller flows, and a plurality of lead wires led out from the housing for supplying current from an external power supply to the motor and for sending and receiving a control signal between the motor and an external control unit. There are a axial flow blower device, a centrifugal blower device, a cross-flow blower device each having different air blowing characteristics, and their impellers and housings have different shapes. One ends of the lead wires are connected to a circuit board provided in the electric motor, and electrically connected to a stator of the motor through the circuit board. The other ends of the lead wires are led out from the housing such that the other ends can electrically be connected to the external power supply or the like provided independently from the motor. The lead wires are fixed to the housing so that the lead wires do not come into contact with the impeller or a rotor of the motor or the lead wires do not function as resistance against the air flow on their way to the outside of the housing from the circuit board. Here, the lead wire comprises a wire member through which current can pass and which is coated with insulating material.
There is a known conventional fixing structure of lead wires described in Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-open No. 62-178770. According to this fixing structure, a flange of the housing is notched to form a support groove, and lead wires are retained in the groove. When it is required to reliably fix the lead wires to the housing, there is a known lead wire fixing structure using a binding band as shown in Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 3091634. According to this lead wire fixing structure, the binding band is wound around the lead wires at one end of a through hole of the housing, and both ends of the binding band are inserted into the through hole, and the binding band is bound at the other end of the through hole. The binding band is strongly bound, the bound portion does not come out from the through hole and thus, the lead wires can reliably be fixed to the housing.
The conventional lead wire fixing structure has a merit that the lead wires can reliably be fixed to the housing, but since the lead wires and the binding band protrude from the outermost surface of the housing, this conventional fixing structure is not suitable if installation space is limited when the blower device is mounted on a predetermined portion of the prescribed equipment. There is an adverse possibility that the portion protruding from the housing of the lead wire fixing structure comes into contact with an external object and lead wire failure is generated, and the conventional fixing structure is not suitable when high reliability is required.